Clutch fork issue

[Shiroelex]

I've been having a weird clutch feeling after installing my new aluminum flywheel and stage 3 clutch. It grabs in the very last inch or so of clutch travel, as in all the way out. It's completely opposite of my last stock setup. That clutch was still good; the throwout was just bad. I just did it all while I was in there. That clutch would grab a bit lower than halfway down, which I liked.

So, to try and compensate for the new crap clutch feeling, which I could not adjust at all with the stock quadrant, I installed a Steeda adjustable cable/firewall/quadrant combo. Playing with this a bit only gave me a heavy pedal feeling. I've been dealing with it thus far.

This clutch says that it needs a 750 mile break-in period. I've got about 170 on it so far, and it's still pretty chattery and grabby. My trans has always made some noise, especially with the old throwout. It makes a whole new noise now. The pedal still vibrates a bit while cruising! That was one of the biggest reasons I started this trans project. Now, in addition to the vibration, it jingles because of the aluminum quadrant against the cable end.

I decide to take a look under the car to see if anything is binding. After removing the fork cover and removing the cable, I found that the fork moves around quite a bit. I can even push it into the trans about a half an inch, and it pops back out. When the bearing is touching the pressure plate, the cable end of the fork is about center in the fork opening, if not a bit closer towards the clutch side. Does any of this sound right? Is there any way of checking if the fork is fully engaged onto the pivot ball without completely removing the trans again? I can't see crap past the input shaft . I can drop my starter again, but I don't know if that will get me any closer to what I want. I just don't want to drop the trans again to find that the clutch fork was on the pivot ball just fine.

Sorry about the novel; I'm just tired of spending money and wasting time making it worse. I can make a little video of the play my clutch fork has, if it will help.

 

[BobHyatt]

the fork movement sounds normal. It has a spring clip formed into the hidden end that slips onto a ball inside the bellhousing. You can push it in too far and it will spring back. That sounds normal.

Clutch catching at the top or near the top simply means you need to tighten up the adjustment a bit to apply more pressure to the throw-out pre-load and cause the clutch to disengage at a lower pedal position.

The factory quadrant/adjustment mechanism is a piece of crap.

You can go to advanced and buy a new adjustable cable and aluminum quadrant (zoom) for less than a hundred bucks, and end up with a much better clutch feel and now you can set it to pick up where you want, rather than where the spring pawl and quadrant wants.

You should be able to easily adjust the clutch to engage anywhere you want, just don't get it too high or you can introduce slipping which you don't want. If you get it to pick up too low, it will start to get hard to put into reverse/low because of dragging. I try to set them fairly low, then do the 7-second spindown test to make sure it is fully disengaging...

 

[Shiroelex]

the fork movement sounds normal. It has a spring clip formed into the hidden end that slips onto a ball inside the bellhousing. You can push it in too far and it will spring back. That sounds normal.

Clutch catching at the top or near the top simply means you need to tighten up the adjustment a bit to apply more pressure to the throw-out pre-load and cause the clutch to disengage at a lower pedal position.

The factory quadrant/adjustment mechanism is a piece of crap.

You can go to advanced and buy a new adjustable cable and aluminum quadrant (zoom) for less than a hundred bucks, and end up with a much better clutch feel and now you can set it to pick up where you want, rather than where the spring pawl and quadrant wants.

You should be able to easily adjust the clutch to engage anywhere you want, just don't get it too high or you can introduce slipping which you don't want. If you get it to pick up too low, it will start to get hard to put into reverse/low because of dragging. I try to set them fairly low, then do the 7-second spindown test to make sure it is fully disengaging...

I have the whole steeda adjutable kit installed. That's the adjustable cable, firewall adjustable, and double hook billet quadrant. Which part and how much in what direction should I go to get the result I am looking for? Like, open the firewall adjuster all the way up but have the cable adjusted all the way in? I don't know how tight I can make it. It still feels hard to push all the way down; sometimes almost too hard to even trigger the clutch switch to start the car.

 

[BobHyatt]

I have the whole steeda adjutable kit installed. That's the adjustable cable, firewall adjustable, and double hook billet quadrant. Which part and how much in what direction should I go to get the result I am looking for? Like, open the firewall adjuster all the way up but have the cable adjusted all the way in? I don't know how tight I can make it. It still feels hard to push all the way down; sometimes almost too hard to even trigger the clutch switch to start the car.

The zoom clutch cable has a screw-on terminator that fits the clutch release lever. Sounds like yours is one that has a fixed clutch lever end, and a screw-in adjustment at the firewall.

Here's the solution:

if you back the firewall adjustment out, so that more of the cable housing is outside the firewall, you cause the clutch to disengage quicker (higher). If you screw it in, you cause it to disengage later (lower pedal height). Just play with it until you like the feel, but the general rule for normal setting is to have the clutch just start to pick up (engage) at between 2" - 2.5" from the floor. That guarantees that you have enough room past the disengage point to eliminate any drag which will make it hard to shift or get into reverse when driving. Too high from the floor and you might not have full pressure-plate holding power which can allow the clutch to slip at WOT, particularly in 4th-5th gears.

On the Zoom clutch cable, you do the opposite... You screw in the adjusting nub, which shortens the cable, to raise the pickup point, you screw it out, which lengthens the cable, to lower the pickup point.

Hope that helps. Just remember the 7 second test when you are done: crank engine, put tranny in neutral and release the clutch. Press pedal all the way to floor, count 1-mississippi, 2-mississippi, ..., 7-mississippi and then quickly shift into reverse. If it goes in cleanly, you are ok on the clutch not dragging. If it grinds, you need to raise the pickup point a bit (lengthen the cable or shorten the housing) and try again...

 

[Shiroelex]

That's an interesting test... I'll have to try that next time I get in the car. My cable is adjustable at the clutch fork as well as the firewall. I have them adjusted about 50/50 right now. I'll play with them tomorrow to see if I can't get a better result. I do feel better about the fork now, though. I do have the clutch cable on the hooks closer to the firewall on my double hook quadrant. I'm pretty sure that the destructions recommended that. Here's the exact kit I bought.

Steeda Kit

I just gotta get that pedal height adjuster to move the clutch down to brake pedal height, then the MGW, and the trans is done. Trying to make this 3650 amazing is expensive.